I have had cell phones on the mind recently. I don't have a cell phone and really don't have much desire to have one. Yet I feel like I should have one since everyone else has one. At my day job, we're trying to build websites for people to use in all the ways they want to use them, and globally the most common way to connect to the Internet is through a cell phone. Shouldn't I have some experience with this newfangled technology? Or at least that's what I've been thinking for the past few weeks.
So, with cell phones on the mind, three stories have caught my eye recently with regard to how cell phones affect behaviour and how those around cell phone users can react.
The first story is of an elderly man taking matters into his own hands when the manners of a cell phone user offended him: Cellphone vigilante gets probation, fan mail.
Bill Stevenson, 79, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday, receiving three months of probation for trying to take the phone away from Jesse Tabor.But Stevenson and his 74-year-old friend Sten Gerfast still believe they did the right thing.
The second story I came across in my daily troll through blog posts and news. A design company out of Chicago called Coudal Partners has invented the Society for HandHeld Hushing (SHHH - PDF). From what I can tell, the society seems loosely formed, without rules, a meeting space or schedule, and with only one abiding edict - making the world a more civilized place by eliminating cell-phone conversation spillover. At the link above you will discover their starter kit with handy handbills featuring pointed messages in support of their edict, such as The world is a noisy place. You aren't helping things.
The last story I came across through one of my handy RSS feeds at My Yahoo. Harper's Magazine reports in its weekly review of news how a German ornithologist discovered that urban nightingales, forced to compete with noise pollution, can sing so loud they break the law. The loudest recorded was 95 decibels, which is as loud as a chainsaw.
And by the way (btw), if you have a good cell phone recommendation for me, of handset or of service providers in Canada, or of the factors and features I should be considering in my decision, please oh please let me know. Deciphering the pricing and service schemes of the carriers - Bell, Telus, Rogers - is like chewing tinfoil.
Posted by James Sherrett at December 30, 2004 05:32 PMSo my caveman friend saves to me "that new wheel thing, it goes so fast, why does anyone need to go that fast?" "Me I likes walking, this new fandangled wheel thing, I don't like it one bit" Change is the only true constant!
The new techonology (my cell phone and palm pilot) allow me to set up office in a forest near the mountains. Beats working in a office.
So sign me up for one of those new wheel things, if it depletes my quality of life, I won't use it!
Dude. You gotta go Mobility, which means Telus for these parts (best service in and out of town, good phones). As for the phone: go simple (make and receive calls, look up hockey scores on the web). as for the plan: go modest (1-2 years, $50 a mth or less worth of minutes). And see how she goes, you can always increase the minute-per-month plan if you find you need more airtime.
And then start dialing like mad.